Pathways
by lankree
Summary: During the Equalist Revolution, mistakes were made. Much of the time in the week's following, Korra and her team struggle to set everything right… depending on who you ask, Avatar Korra's energy bending is making things better or so much worse.


**Title**: Pathways

**Chapter 1: The Offense**

**Author**: lankree

**Fandom**: Avatar: The Legend of Korra

**Summary**: During the Equalist Revolution, mistakes were made. Much of the time in the week's following, Korra and her team struggle to set everything right… depending on who you ask, Avatar Korra's energy bending is making things better or so much worse.

**Chapter Synopsis**: A fight against a girl with no name

In her post-Amon world, the Avatar had become quite accustomed to not being punched in the face. It just seemed to rarely happen when one is A) the fully realized Avatar, protector of the people and master of all four elements; B) sitting on the steps of the council building, having just finished another exhausting round of energy-bending; and C) completely without any known enemies…

But as her head snapped back and her body soared out into the air destined to crash to the floor, it seemed that Korra was simply mistaken about that last one.

Before the punch that had struck her beautifully in the bridge of her nose, which she did not appreciate at the time, but would eventually respect for its ferocity and control, Korra was resting in the company of Mako, Bolin and Asami, needing desperately the R&R before resuming her duties as Avatar. Amon had directly affected two hundred-eighty one benders during his reign over Republic City and while taking away bending took less than a minute, restoring a bender's gift could range from seconds to hours.

In thirteen days, Korra had restored the bending of two hundred-seventeen benders. It made for a very tired avatar, indeed.

Korra realized as her body soared that the blow to the face had come from a fist connected to an arm that had been trained to the bone to do it right. It wasn't natural: it was conditioned; it was very much like Korra's own air bending. Her upper back struck the ground and skid briefly before she channeled her air bending and catapulted herself away in a triple roll. She saw, with her knees jackknifed over her head, that her attacker had moved forward, a diving knee cratered the floor where Korra's stomach had just been. Korra gritted her teeth and finished her rolling path shooting an air column with her feet, intending to push herself further and her hurl her attacker away from her.

She missed.

Her attacker, a girl with dark blue/brown eyes barely seventeen, rolled her shoulder, dancing out of the air column's way. The blow meant for her continued to sail and struck Asami. The surprised Asami let out a shriek then a groan when she slammed into a wooden crate. The strike moved Korra's companions to action.

Mako's fire ripped from his fist with a flash uppercut. The fire darted through the air like an arrow, flickering around the girl's thick, dark gray locks as she whirled around to face the fire bender. She crept quickly like a spider, getting under Mako's guard before he realized she'd moved. Her quick fists struck a symphony along his body, striking the stream of tenketsus running up his side.

"A Chi-blocker?" Mako gasped.

Mako had the best view of the chi-blocker's thighs as they wrapped around him in a whirlwind, latching around his neck before snapping her hips to complete the hurricarana, pulling the fire bender off his feet and hurling him across the room.

The chi-blocker landed on her knees, ticking her teeth at the off-balanced Mako, the first sound she had made that wasn't the noise of her body striking another's. The earth under her rumbled as Mako's brother showed his might. Her eyes widen, shifting to her feet to keep her balance. Before she could tumble into the air to avoid Bolin's skill, Asami's assault kept her grounded. Asami's stolen "Fist of the Revolution" had become like a second skin, adding a disabling mix to her years of hard trained martial arts. The spark of electricity crackled harshly when it connected with her opponent's left shoulder, just her wrist making the intended contact: the chi-blocker was very quick. The girl with dark thick hair and dark eyes bit her lip to keep a scream in when the weapon's charge surged through her. Her body twisted, pivoting smoothly on the toes of her left foot clockwise, rolling to the outside of Asami's outstretched arm. Her striking elbow smashed into the glass of Asami's glove, sparking the circuitry.

"What? How did you-" Asami's question was cut off by another set of swings from the chi-blocker. The girl's leather skirt, synched in tight to the waist, flared with the arc of her kick that flailed over Asami's head when she ducked. Asami lashed out with two kicks and a jab, pushing the chi-blocker back into the Avatar's path.

Korra let out a grunt of effort as she hurled a straight fist at the girl, not entirely surprised when it missed, but delighted when an air blast caught her in the chest. The girl stumbled and was immediately cornered by Asami and Mako. A sharp elbow to the gut disabled Asami, the pretty girl toppled over to her knees in pain. Mako didn't let his confusion over why the chi-blocker's eyes lingered on Asami in concern stop him from capitalizing on her distraction. The partially disabled fire bender swung out with everything he had, each attack met with a strike to his pressure points until the only place he had left to shoot fire was his mouth…

Unfortunately, he hadn't learned how to do that.

Bolin uprooted the earth, creeping spikes like a snake whip until they met the girl's back. She tripped over the debris, spinning to keep her balance, but stumbled into Mako's arms. The much taller bender grabbed the girl tightly in a bear hug, not an inch between her back and his chest.

"Gotcha!" He taunted, his body looming over hers.

He really had no idea what he was up against.

Korra rushed in as Mako was over powered, the girl using Mako's legs as a launch pad for her somersault. Mako lost his grip and was off balanced when the girl landed with the back of her knees on his shoulders. Her momentum pulled them backwards, hurling Mako, again, off his feet.

"Man," Bolin questioned, "what is this girl's deal with throwing Mako with her legs?"

"Bolin! Focus!" Mako reprimanded.

"Right, stop chi-blocker. Got it."

Bolin pulled slabs of earth on either side of the chi-blocker. The girl turned in her confusion to face the earth bender. Their eyes met briefly, his widening at the surprisingly attractive features of her face, hers narrowing at how little space she had to move. Bolin had trapped her and put her right in the path of Korra's air blade. The cannon ball of air slammed into the girl's back, hurling her off her feet and directly into Bolin's arms.

The pair let out a huff when they collided. Bolin's solid form absorbed the blow, his feet barely skidding an inch. The girl tried to pull back, but Bolin's arms instinctively wrapped around her and then tightened when he remembered what happened the last two times someone had grabbed her like that.

It was not the first time that Bolin was glad he outweighed his brother by twenty eight stones. The girl struggled futilely for a few seconds before looking up into Bolin's face.

"Please let me go."

Bolin was super tempted. The girl who just finished kicking Mako and Asami's butts was super pretty up close and smelled great. She had a wide set nose to match her full mouth and full eyebrows. Without all the spinning and antagonist hitting of his precious people, Bolin could see some of the chi-blocker's thick dreaded locks were coiled up from behind her ears and pinned on the crown of her head with an intricate and beautiful headpiece with a silver bird with wide wings on the top. The beautiful headpiece didn't match the dark blue, short-sleeved shirt she wore under a purple apron. From the neck down spoke of poverty, but the elegant features, that voice and that headpiece spoke of nobility.

Bolin was tempted to bow to her.

_Keep it cool, Bolin. She's just a girl. A super pretty, butt-kicking girl… Hey, those butts belong to your brother and friend! She's super tough to kick their butts. What about her butt? I didn't really get a chance to -! Don't think about her butt! Stop thinking butts!_

While Bolin was clearly fighting a war of priorities, the girl in his arms did not try to squirm away. "Please let me go, Earth Bender. I take no issue with you. We're not enemies." She said, cutting through Bolin's stream of consciousness. Bolin looked back down at her and absorbed the very subtle blush on the girl's cheek.

He suddenly felt a million degrees. _If I let her go, maybe I'll stop sweating. But if I let her go I won't be holding her anymore. She may attack my friends. But she's looking at me! I want to let her go and hold her forever! What do I do! What do I do!_

Korra's level-headedness cut through Bolin's anxiety.

"Anyone who attacks the avatar IS his enemy." Korra responded.

The chi-blocker locked in Bolin's arms tried to turn her head to the avatar but succeeded in only rubbing her chin against Bolin's pecks, causing the older boy to giggle. "Earth bender, could you turn me around? I don't think the Avatar wasn't to have this confrontation with my rump."

Bolin let out an embarrass gasp of noise at her statement. Korra sweat-dropped while Bolin pulled himself together, faster than humanly possible turning the girl in his arms and relocking his grip on her. Her thick, dark hair smelled like pomegranate. Not helping.

"Who are you? Why did you attack me?"

"Let me guess, you're a disgruntled equalist who can't accept your leader was a fraud?" Mako added.

The girl shook her head furiously in the negative.

"I'd never support Amon… not really. Equality doesn't mean other's can't use their gifts, it means everyone should be encouraged to show their strengths even when those gifts aren't bending." The girl responded.

It concerned Mako, as he was helped up by Asami, that the girl who could easily disable him and Asami and catch the Avatar off guard wasn't even trying to break free from his brother any more. Sure, Bolin was bigger, but chi-blockers had taken his brother down before.

_This isn't about ability_, Mako deduced: _She's letting Bolin hold her. Unlike the rest of us, it matters to her if Bolin gets hurt. _

"But you admit it, you're an equalist." Korra pressed.

"No! No way! I mean, I trained with them…"

"So you're not an equalist, but you trained with equalist? Why would you train with them if you didn't want to use chi-blocking to stop bending?" Mako asked.

"I thought if I learned how to chi-block like Amon and really understand what he was doing that maybe I could undo it… if he ever got to my sister. Who was a water bender…"

"Was? He got to her?" Asami asked.

"Asami, don't sympathize with her." Mako interrupted. "The bad guys use sympathy to get the upperhand when they're losing."

"I'm NOT the bad guy."

"Bad guys don't say please…" Bolin responded, mostly under his breath.

"Only bad guys go around punching Avatars!" Mako snorted in return.

"And Avatar friends…" Bolin added quickly, "who happen to be good looking and awesome at everything they do."

The smaller girl huffed, staring Mako down before shifting to Korra's eyes. It became clear to Korra, what Mako had seen. Even though Bolin had loosened his grasp considerably, the girl wasn't trying to flee or fight.

She wanted to be heard.

"I'm sorry a punched you, Avatar Korra… I… overreacted."

"Overreacted? You call breaking my glove and hurling Mako around like a rag doll overreacting?" Asami asked, ignoring Mako's sound of indignation. "I hate to see how you do subtle."

"I'm actually really sorry about hurting you, Asami. I tend to only break things I can fix. I can't get you a new glove… I threw mine away before the Equalist cleanse… before Avatar Korra showed Amon's true colors. He'd already gotten to my sister, so there was no point in pretending to follow him anymore."

"What's the deal with this sister of yours? Is that why you attacked me? I can give her her bending back… I just need time. There are three hundred other people who needed my help-"

The girl's eyes darkened and for a moment the Avatar and her gang rose their guard in case the chi-blocker decided she was done talking.

"You did," the girl made an attempt to raise her arms but found Bolin's grip tighter than it had been. She sighed. "You'll have to imagine I'm making air quotes as I say help." She said before starting again "She did _help_. If by _help_, you mean made everything so much worse, then Avatar Korra _helped_ a lot."

Mako and Asami's faces drooped, matching Korra's at this strange girl's theatrics.

"What do you mean? Can't your sister bend?" Korra asked.

The girl, whose name was Dan, gave the Avatar a heated look. "She can bend alright. She bends earth just fine."

"Then what's the problem?"

Dan stared Korra hard in the eyes. "Before you _helped_ her, my sister was a water bender."

End of Part.

**Next Chapter: Loyalty**

Summary: Could the former chi-blocker Dan be telling the truth? Was it possible to change bending abilities from one element to another? Will meeting Dan's sister reveal something new about Chi and where bending comes from?

**Author's notes:**

So that's the first chapter. It went longer than I expected it to, but it got the setup done for the next chapter. I'm probably going to update once a week, but reviews with constructive criticisms makes me write faster (and better).

FYI on who is going to appear in this story: Tenzin, Bumi, Lin, Iroh, Tahno and a few of the background players. Everyone will have things to do, so while Mako and Asami have been relegated to Dan's punching bags for this chapter, that will change going forward.

A note on ships and continuity: This story is loyal to Book One: Air, that includes the established ship of Korra and Mako. Anyone is single now could find themselves in a new relationship, but necessary one you might guess and not everyone will find happiness with a character in the story…


End file.
